Nirvikar Singh is currently Co-Director of the Center for Analytical Finance at UCSC, of which he was the founding Director. From 2010 to 2020, he held the Sarbjit Singh Aurora Chair of Sikh and Punjabi Studies at UCSC. He has previously directed the UCSC South Asian Studies Initiative. He has served as a member of the Advisory Group to the Finance Minister of India on G-20 matters, and Consultant to the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He is currently serving on the Expert Group on post-Covid-19 economic recovery formed by the Chief Minister of Punjab state in India. At UCSC, he has previously served as Director of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor. In the 1990s, he organized one of the first major US conferences on Indian economic reform. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Allyn Young Prize, Gonner Prize and Ely Devons Prize.
Professor Singh’s current research topics include entrepreneurship, information technology and development, electronic commerce, business strategy, political economy, federalism, economic growth, the Indian economy, and Sikh and Punjabi studies. He has authored over 100 research papers and co-authored or co-edited six books: Joint Ventures, International Investment and Technology Transfer; The Political Economy of Federalism in India; Waiting to Connect: India IT Revolution Bypasses the Domestic Industry; Handbook of the Economics of the Pacific Rim; Economic Transformation of a Developing Economy: The Experience of Punjab, India; and The Other One Percent: Indians in America. He has also served as an advisor for several startups and knowledge services firms in Silicon Valley and in India.